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Best Chess Players (relative to their peers)

Morphy Up

Fischer Down

(Actually I like Fischer but Fischer worked hard, not like Morphy or Capablanca)

Bobby Fischer - 28
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 30
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 31
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 20
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 25
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 7
Boris Spassky - 14

Morphy was perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived, he would beat anybody today in a set-match. He had complete sight of the board and seldom blundered even though he moved quite rapidly , rarely taking more than five minutes to decide a move. ( His opponents, in those days before chess clocks , often took hours. ) I've played over hundreds of his games and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity. it has taken me twenty minutes at times to find the proper response to one of his moves. –
Bobby Fischer (on Morphy)

More here : i.hizliresim.com/g9dLvQ.png

Jose Raul Capablanca :

Reviewing the history of chess from La Bourdonnais to the masters of our day right up to Lasker, we discover that the greatest stylist was Morphy. He did not look for complicated combinations, but he also did not avoid them, which really is the correct way of playing... His main strength lay not in his combinative gift, but in his positional play and general style. Morphy gained most of his wins by playing directly and simply, and it is this simple and logical method that constitutes the true brilliance of his play, if it is considered from the viewpoint of the great masters.

and

[I play in] the style of Morphy, they say, and if it is true that the goddess of fortune has endowed me with his talent, the result [of the match with Emanuel Lasker] will not be in doubt. The magnificent American master had the most extraordinary brain that anybody has ever had for chess. Technique, strategy, tactics, knowledge which is inconceivable for us; all that was possessed by Morphy fifty-four years ago

You should not underestimate Morphy..
correction: #121 did not add Morphy +1, but added +2 to Capablanca incorrectly

Bobby Fischer - 28
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 31
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 20
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 25
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 7
Boris Spassky - 14
Down Staunton, up Anand

Bobby Fischer - 28
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 31
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 20
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 26
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 5
Boris Spassky - 14
Anand up, Kasparov down.
Kasparov is a player who acts and cheats like a child

Bobby Fischer - 28
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 31
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 19
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 28
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 5
Boris Spassky - 14
Fischer up, Morphy down

Bobby Fischer - 29
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 29
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 19
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 28
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 5
Boris Spassky - 14
Fischer Down Morphy Up

Bobby Fischer - 27
Emanuel Lasker - 26
Paul Morphy - 30
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 19
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 28
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 5
Boris Spassky - 14
Lasker up, Staunton down.

Bobby Fischer - 27
Emanuel Lasker - 27
Paul Morphy - 30
Wilhelm Steinitz - 18
Jose Capablanca - 29
Anatoly Karpov - 26
Garry Kasparov - 19
Mikhail Tal - 19
Mikhail Botvinnik - 19
Vishy Anand - 28
Tigran Petrosian - 18
Francois-Andre Philidor - 24
Howard Staunton - 3
Boris Spassky - 14

Personally, I think Morphy, Lasker, and Fischer should be the last three remaining. All three had good records against their best competition.
"Relative to their peers" and "against their best competition"; the list does not include Efin Geller.

W L D
Mikhail Botvinnik* 4 1 7
David Bronstein 5 4 12
Bobby Fischer* 5 3 2
Paul Keres 7 8 21
Viktor Korchnoi 6 11 16
Bent Larsen 4 5 2
Tigran Petrosian* 5 3 32
Lajos Portisch 4 2 12
Vasily Smyslov* 11 8 37
Boris Spassky* 6 10 23
Mark Taimanov 8 9 13
Mikhail Tal* 6 6 23

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